State trooper shot and killed throughout site visitors cease leaves behind spouse and younger daughter | EUROtoday

A Pennsylvania State Police trooper was shot and killed as he approached a automotive he had pulled over in a site visitors cease Sunday night time, authorities mentioned.

Cpl. Tim O’Connor was killed when the driving force fired from contained in the car, the state’s appearing police commissioner, Lt. Col. George Bivens, mentioned at an early Monday morning information convention at Paoli Hospital in Chester County.

The shooter — recognized by police as Jesse Nathan Elks, 32, from close by Honey Brook — then obtained out of the automotive, walked a brief distance away and shot and killed himself with a pistol, Bivens mentioned.

O’Connor was a 15-year veteran of the state police who was married and had a younger daughter, authorities mentioned.

“Anybody you talk to tells you what a great guy he was,” Bivens mentioned.

Gov. Josh Shapiro mentioned on the information convention that he informed O’Connor’s spouse, Casey, and oldsters that there have been many questions on the capturing, “but the one thing that we absolutely know for certain is that their son, their husband, was a hero and he died protecting others.”

“That is a noble calling and that is something we are profoundly grateful for,” Shapiro mentioned.

O’Connor, 40, joined the state police in 2010, state police said. He became the 105th member of the Pennsylvania State Police to be killed in the line of duty, the agency said.

O’Connor had been on patrol shortly after 8 p.m. Sunday night when a call came in for an erratic driver. O’Connor was dispatched and reported minutes later that he had pulled over the car at an intersection in West Caln Township, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of Philadelphia, Bivens said.

“That is the last we heard from Corporal O’Connor,” Bivens mentioned.

He did not reply to ensuing radio calls and troopers dispatched to the scene to test on him “discovered a really unhealthy state of affairs,” Bivens mentioned.

Police and Chester County authorities had been investigating, Bivens mentioned.

Chester County’s district lawyer, Christopher de Barrena-Sarobe, mentioned investigators will look into Elks’ background and motives.

Shapiro ordered U.S. and state flags to fly at half-staff to honor O’Connor.